By Olivia Ireland
Peter Dutton is backing away from his tax cut pledge for highly paid Australians, saying reform will depend on the state of the economy in a major shift of the Coalition’s election strategy as he headed off debate on abortion by declaring he personally supported access to the procedure.
The Coalition had vowed to take “strong tax reforms” benefiting prosperous Australians to the next election but Dutton cited US president-elect Donald Trump’s successful appeal to voters angry at inflation as justification for a change in emphasis.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton backs away from tax cut changes.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“I think the priority, to be honest, is to get inflation down, to get interest rates down and to support jobs in the economy,” Dutton told Radio National on Wednesday.
The opposition leader declared “I support a woman’s right to choose” in the same interview, shutting down the issue of abortion restrictions that took attention away from the economy in last month’s Queensland state election.
Asked whether a Coalition government would deliver tax cuts for wealthier Australians, Dutton refused to commit.
“[Tax cuts] depends on where the numbers are as we go into the election and how much money is available and how we prioritise our spending and how we do it in a way which is targeting inflation, so that interest rates can come down,” he said.
The Coalition has gone to several recent elections promising major tax cuts for those on higher incomes as the centrepiece of an agenda on aspiration, but Dutton’s shift in language suggests the opposition will have to find fresh ways of appealing to voters on earnings.
He said the way a Coalition government would help people under financial stress depended on the state of the economy in the next election. He blamed the government for being on a spending spree.
In February, Dutton committed to tax reform stating: “We will take to the next election a significant tax policy which will reduce taxes for Australian taxpayers.”
“We will take to the next election strong tax reforms, in keeping with the [Coalition-designed] stage three tax cuts,” Dutton said, referring to those benefiting Australians on higher incomes before the changes made by the Albanese government.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers took the opportunity to lash Dutton for backtracking and said it conflicted with shadow treasurer Angus Taylor’s previous pledges to reinstate the Coalition’s tax cuts.
“They are hopelessly divided on this. They are all at sea on this question of income tax,” Chalmers told ABC on Monday afternoon.
Trump won the US election promising to remove federal tax on tips, which are mainly earned by workers on low wages, but he enacted tax cuts for wealthy Americans, which are due to expire soon, during his first term as president. He has promised to renew those tax cuts.
Voters remain focused on cost-of-living pressures, after this masthead’s polling revealed the US election left Australians bracing for economic and security shocks. Dutton also gained a boost in his personal approval rating.
If federal Labor chose to make abortion an issue during the election, it would be “the cheapest, most crass political effort in our recent history,” Dutton said.
He recalled working as a detective in the sex offenders squad working with rape victims to support his argument that women should be allowed to make their own decisions about abortion.
“Ultimately, that’s a choice and a decision for that individual to make, and that’s the position I support,” Dutton said.
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